JUDGMENT

PUNCHHI, J.— This appeal by special leave is directed against the award of the Central Government Industrial Tribunal, New Delhi, in I.D. No, 40 of 1986 published in the Gazette of India, New Delhi dated October 21, 1989.

2. The appellant is the Mathura Refinery Mazdoor Sangh (hereafter referred to as the Union). The contesting respondent is the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Mathura Refinery Project, Mathura, U.P. (hereafter referred to as the Refinery). The Union represents about 900 causal labourers working in the Refinery. These labourers are contract labourers coming under the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970. The nature of their work has grouped them. Some of the labourers have formed themselves into cooperative societies and those societies have entered into labour contracts with the Refinery. Other labourers are working under labour contractors who have contracts with the Refinery. Theirs is not a constant relationship with one contractor and these labourers keep shifting from one contractor to another. However it is claimed that these casual labourers have been working in the Refinery for so many years in the past ranging between ten to fifteen ye